Slow Food KCC

Aloha and Welcome! This is the Kapi'olani Community College Chapter of Slow Food located in Honolulu, Hawaii. Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.
Today, we have over 100,000 members all over the world!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

We now have an official Slow Food @ KCC website! The aim is to create a beautiful and user-friendly experience and make sure that you can stay up to date with the latest Slow Food @ KCC happenings! Feedback is very welcome.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

What a whirlwind! San and I were chosen as Student Delegates to attend last October’s Terra Madre Conference. A bi-annual Slow Food meeting held in Turin, Italy, Terra Madre is attended by members from around the world who are working to create good, clean and fair food systems in their communities. Terra Madre aims to address the global concerns relating to feeding the world while uniting the international Slow Food Community to network, inspire and create solutions.

Among the many great speakers that attended this year’s conference, Alice Waters, Vandana Shiva, and Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini were there to share their words of wisdom and their excitement to see the diversity and ingenuity of attendees from around the globe.

The event was intense and inspiring. Sharing dialogue and breaking bread with so many people nurturing a common goal fostered in me a great sense of empowerment and connection. It is evident now that the efforts, no matter how small, made by every individual aspiring towards a good, clean and fair food system, are actions that can resound positively on a global scale! Keep up the good work Slow Foodies!!

The next Terra Madre, slated for 2012, is in the process of being planned. As an active Slow Food member you are encouraged to apply and share in the experience. Visit Slow Food USA to stay updated on when and where it will take place and how you can get involved.

Now that San and I have both returned from Europe we are planning a Terra Madre Dinner. A celebration of some of the delicious food we were lucky enough to eat in Italy combined with a slideshow and discussion about our amazing trip. I will update soon with a date for our dinner.

*Slow Food Oahu will be hosting their annual member meeting and Potluck on Sunday January 30. As part of the Slow Food community, we (Slow Food KCC members) have been invited. It is a potluck so you will need to provide a dish. Also, please bring your own plate-ware and utensils to eat from. So far San and I will be going. If you would like to come with us please RSVP to me, Gida, (kcc@slowfoodusa.org) before the 27th (Thursday) so we can coordinate our potluck dishes and carpooling to the event. *Slow Food KCC will have our first meeting of the semester on Monday, January 31 at Kapiolani Community College Ohelo Bldg. Room 124The meeting time is 12:00 to 1:30. All are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Slow Food KCC has been asked to represent KCC in this year’s US Dept. of Energy Solar Decathlon. An international competition of student teams who will build fully functional, solar powered homes, Team Hawaii includes UH Manoa, HCC and KCC students. The UH Manoa Schools of Architecture, Engineering, and the Shidler College of Business, succeeded in designing and presenting their entry and were chosen as one of 20 teams from around the world that will build and display their solar powered home, to be constructed by students from HCC, in the fall of this year. As culinary students at KCC with a unique perspective on sustainability and green energy, Slow Food KCC now has the rare and wonderful opportunity to be part of this historic collaborative effort. Our purpose will be to prove the home’s functionality by cooking and entertaining within the structures of the competition. Our work starts now however, as we will be providing our input on kitchen design and helping to plan the house’s aquaponics system so we can prepare food that is as environmentally clean and sustainable as the home itself. We are in the fledging stages of this collaboration and looking for current Slow Food KCC members who would like to get involved. We will discuss this more at our upcoming meeting (above.) Meanwhile you can look here for more information about the house.

There are a few opportunities this week to find out more:

Friday, Saturday, Sunday January 28,29,30 @ the Honolulu Builder’s Expo at the Blaisdell. Team Hawaii will have a display booth and members of the team will be on hand to answer questions.

To find out more about participating contact me by email kcc@slowfoodusa.org

And last but not least....-------------------------------------------------------------------------------SAYONARA ANNA HIRANOWe say a sweet Aloha to the wonderful Ms. Anna Hirano. Anna, a dedicated Slow Food KCC member has graduated and left Hawaii for Napa Valley where she will work for Morimoto Napa and go out and explore the world of food. Although we will miss her fantastic laugh and great energy, we are excited for her new life and opportunities and wish her the very best!!!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Our Farmers Market events were wonderful. Kailua welcomed us with open arms and people were thrilled to taste the perfectly grilled Wailea Ag Heart of Palm, lightly brushed with Naked Cow Dairy clarified butter and sprinkled with Hawaiian Sea Salt. Slo-Ade was a hit too and was the perfect refreshing pairing for the Heart of Palm.. YUM!

Saturday was great! KCC Farmers Market goers really responded well to our Slo-Fro-Yo with herb syrups.. more than a few people suggested we become a permanent fixture at the market..hmm.... All in all a great success we managed to add $700 (!) to our fundraising total bringing us up to $1200 of our $2500 goal!! We have at least 2 more Farmers Market days and are looking forward to keeping up the momentum!. Dates coming soon!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

So far we have achieved $500 of our $2500 goal to get us to Terra Madre (see last post) thanks to generous donations from a few individuals and the success of last month's Slow Art Friday. Join us this Friday to enjoy a really lovely evening while helping us get closer to our goal!!

This Friday, August 20th join us in downtown Honolulu for a European-style street fair complete with music, art, performances, and food.. as the evening falls the street is closed off to traffic and candles are lit on a long community table. Order food and wine from Du Vin's booth or tasty Cuban food from Soul de Cuba, buy a glass of "Slow-Ade" and a cup of freshly churned Fro-Yo topped with herbal syrup from us at the Slow Food KCC booth and sit down to watch street performers and musicians do their thing.. Slow Art Friday is about community, people watching and taking it SLOW on a beautiful Honolulu evening.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

It seems like summer came so quickly and is going just as fast! A whirlwind of activity for most of our Slow Food members either taking summer classes or leaving the rock for summer internships and experiences elsewhere. Congratulations to Slow Food KCC members Kumi and Chiharu on tying the knot with the men of their dreams! Congratulations to Anna on getting to Napa for an awesome wine experience and several awesome stages. We've been keeping up with her on her beautiful blog http://annahirano.wordpress.com/

In more big news San and myself (Gida) have been chosen to represent Hawaii as student delegates for Terra Madre, a week long Slow Food Conference in Torino, Italy this October. We are thrilled to see Italy through Slow Food eyes while having the opportunity to learn, grow and network with delegates from 150 countries and bring back what we learn to our community in Hawaii!http://www.terramadre.info/pagine/incontri/welcome.lasso?id=C2744B880a15e27F8CmVS2DE0085&tp=3in order to cover travel costs and offset some of the expenses we have begun a campaign to raise money for the trip....Let the FUNDRAISING begin!

So far we have begun the effort by linking up with Slow Art Fridays and hosting a refreshment booth featuring "slow-ade" made with Big-Island meyer lemons and limes and from-scratch frozen yogurt made with local milk and served with artisanal herb syrups.

We will be increasing our fundraising efforts in August with more "lemonade stands" and other events which we'll talk about soon. We appreciate all of the support we've been getting from friends, family and community!!

To donate to our Terra Madre trip please email kcc@slowfoodusa.org. All help is appreciated!!

Monday, April 26, 2010

We were invited back to UH Manoa to provide refreshments for the 2nd annual CEJE Rock The Boat Concert. The menu was vegetarian tacos made with soft corn tortillas, chipotle beans, locally sourced "calabacitas" (a saute of corn, squash and peppers) as well as delicious condiments including avocado salsa verde, pico de gallo and pickled hearts of palm. Our simple but tasty food was available to the performers and concertgoers participating in Rock the Boat. As always we had an amazing time. Thanks to Eri Oura for coordinating with us!!

See this link for more info about CEJE http://www2.hawaii.edu/~ceje/Home.html